Interview Highlight "Aion" of NCSoft to debut at E3 Expo NCSoft, Korea's largest game company, will be unveiling a number of new games, including "Aion," at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), which will be held at Los Angeles Convention Center in the United States on May 10-12. "Aion" developed by the Korea Development Studio is a large-scale massively multiplayer online (MMO) game and it is attracting great attention from a slew of gamers in the world. In particular, NCSoft plans to reveal the play-available version of the "Aion" at the E3 this time. NCSoft, which advanced the North American market in 2001 for the first time through the E3, plans to establish an independent booth at the South Hall of the LA Convention Center this time. In addition to "Aion," it will unveil the play-available versions of such new games as "Dungeon Runners" and "Tabula Rasa," while introducing updated versions of "Guild Wars Factions," "Auto Assault" and "Exteel." Kim Taek-jin, CEO of NCSoft, said, "Since its advancement into the North American market in 2001, NCSoft has introduced six major MMO game titles in the market during the past five years. At the same time, we have been exerting best efforts to upgrade the status of NCSoft through setup of locally incorporated firms in the global markets and offering of game services." Commenting that NCSoft has been cementing its position as a leader in the online game market, he said. "Our company will introduce various multiplayer games to global gamers at E3 this time." NCSoft launched its commercial service for its online computer game "Lineage" in 1998 for the first time. Since then, the company has enjoyed brilliant developments with its annual sales exceeding the 100 billion won ($104.1 million) mark for the first time among Korean IT companies and the number of its staff surpassing 1,000 persons. From 2000, NCSoft started to advance into the world markets, including the United States, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand and Europe, growing up as one of the world's biggest online game companies. In 2005, its overseas sales amounted to 145.9 billion won ($151.9 million), including 28.9 billion won it received from Taiwan and China as royalties. Its sales in 2005 came to 30.3 billion won in Japan, 17.9 billion won in Europe and 68.8 billion won in North America. Meanwhile, the portion of domestic sales stood at 57 percent of the total sales in 2005. NCSoft reduced its target for the portion of the domestic sales to 53 percent this year, focusing its all-out efforts on overseas business activities. NCSoft was established in March 1997 and set up its branches in the United States and Europe in 2000 and established locally incorporated firms each in Japan, China, Taiwan and Thailand, securing a bridgehead for exploring overseas markets. To satisfy global gamers who enjoy different games and tastes, NCSoft set up a visual studio connecting South Korea, the United States and China, while developing new games by grafting the Orient's graphics onto Western tastes. Game developers of NCSoft armed with advanced technology and outstanding brains are making best efforts to produce the world's top-class games, CEO Kim said. In particular, "Lineage" developed by NCSoft is a mega-hit multiplayer game where hundreds of thousands people form a virtual society. It has more than 2 million registered users in South Korea and around 300,000 users in the world, including Taiwan, North America, Japan and China, play it simultaneously during the daily peak time. "Lineage II," the follow-up game of "Lineage," is also winning popularity among global gamers with the number of simultaneous connectors to the game reaching over 350,000 worldwide, including 120,000 in Korea, he said.